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19 killed in protests in Pakistan

Government approved demonstrations

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoK.M. Chaudary | Associated PressPakistani protesters topple a shipping container police used to block the road to the U.S. consulate in Lahore. Protests against an anti-Muslim film made in the U.S. rippled across Pakistan, killing 19 people and injuring more than 160 others.

Your Right to Know

By Declan WalshThe New York Times • Saturday September 22, 2012 8:43 AM

ISLAMABAD — Violent crowds furious over an anti-Islamic video made in the United States
convulsed Pakistan’s largest cities yesterday, leaving up to 19 people dead and more than 160
injured in a day of government-sanctioned protests.

It was the worst single day of deadly violence in a Muslim country over the video,
Innocence of Muslims, since the protests began nearly two weeks ago in Egypt. Protesters
have ignored the U.S. government’s denunciation of the video.

Yesterday’s violence in Pakistan began with a television-station employee’s dying from gunshot
wounds in the northwestern city of Peshawar and was amplified through armed protests in the
southern port city of Karachi, which left between 12 and 14 people dead, Pakistani news media
reported.

By nightfall, Geo, the leading television station, was reporting 19 deaths across the country.
Less-violent protests occurred in other Muslim countries but were exacerbated by cartoons depicting
the Prophet Muhammad in a French satirical weekly.

Afghanistan

About 900 people protested in the capital, Kabul, chanting, “Death to America” and burning an
effigy of President Barack Obama and a U.S. flag. A few hundred demonstrators also protested inside
a mosque in the eastern city of Ghazni.

Indonesia

The United States closed its diplomatic missions across Indonesia because of continuing
demonstrations over the film. Small and mostly orderly protests were held outside the U.S. Embassy
in Jakarta and in other cities. No violence was reported.

Iraq

About 3,000 people, mostly followers of Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim groups, protested the film
and caricatures of the prophet in the southern city of Basra.

Sri Lanka

About 2,000 Muslims burned effigies of Obama and American flags at a protest in the capital,
Colombo.

Bangladesh

More than 2,000 people marched through the capital, Dhaka. They burned a makeshift coffin draped
in an American flag and an effigy of Obama.

Lebanon

Tens of thousands of supporters of the Shiite Hezbollah movement protested in the eastern
Lebanese city of Baalbek. Later, a few thousand supporters of a hard-line Sunni cleric gathered in
the capital, Beirut.

Kashmir

Police enforced a daylong curfew in parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir’s main city, Srinagar,
and chased away protesters. Authorities also temporarily blocked cellphone and Internet services to
prevent viewing the film clips.

Germany

Several hundred people gathered in the city of Freiburg in southwestern Germany to protest the
film, while a few hundred demonstrated in the western city of Muenster. Germany is home to an
estimated 4 million Muslims.

Philippines

A professor at the University of the Philippines defied a ban by university officials and showed
students the film’s 14-minute trailer.